Graffiti 2009-10

HEATHER HU

365 days ago, it was announced that North Toronto is moving into a brand new home before the 2010-2011 school year. A home located just off of Broadway Ave. where the tears, laughter, and spirit of every NT student will relocate and live in its most vivid form. A one hundred year tradition of excellence, modernized. It’s time for a change. Not one where everything starts fresh with nothing recalled from the past, but a change as Mr. Gorenkoff puts as “picking up where we have left off”. I have seen the sparkling layouts of the new North Toronto building with the green field, the courtyard, the heritage room, you name it! In just a few moments, you are about to experience a walkthrough of one of Toronto’s most inspirational new structures; a creation unlike anything you have ever experienced before (including fashion show).

Flash forward: My first day of school at the new NTCI (summer 2010). I can feel the intensity in the air as I glance up towards the marble structure. Pushing open those grand, green doors, I am completely in awe. To my right, running a mile long are floor to ceiling windows, which allows students to see through to the acre-wide epitome of a varsity track field. So for all Eglinton-park-not-so-much athletes, this is for you. I walk further into the school with my footsteps echoing in the hallway and I reach for one of the doors to my left- is this the student commons? I take a extra moment to envision the room with chairs, tables, flowers, and carpeting and now I see a place for parents and students to gather for our renowned Maytime Melodies. Leading to the next room is our auditorium which looks exactly like our old one except there are green chairs on the sides and there is a large volume of space in front of the stage which we have never had before. Take that, Four Seasons.

And didn’t the architects say there is a courtyard? With sunlight streaming in, a small rectangular area filled with benches beckons me. Now students can have a place for lunch rather than at some random, dingy McDonald’s. I venture forward to the arts areas which have rooms much larger than the regular classrooms. I move on to the much anticipated gymnasium. It is massive! I’ve got to declare that we are the luckiest school in the GTA to be able to accommodate a gym as big as Northern Secondary. Looking to find your peace with athletics? Look no more. Some facilities we have now are the fully equipped showers, the multiple change rooms, and a weight room the size of 2 standardized classrooms.

The next stop is the heritage room full of memories of 96 years of North Toronto. Located in this red and cream room, there are artifacts commemorating names of those NT students who fought in WWI, and a timeline of our school in history. Moving on, this is for the Art Council members, for the first time, we will be having our own digital seminar room. So ambitious Photoshop, yearbook and media students can now develop their interests! Think of the possibilities aspiring artists will have for all of their creative projects.

My only disappointment is that almost all the walls I walk pass are covered in the grey. Perhaps after we move in, the first major “frosh” activity will be to paint them with our proud Norsemen mascots! At this point of my self-invited visit, I still have yet to visit one more significant piece that completes North Toronto: our dear, old library. Draped in a rich, forest green hue, this library is three times longer than our last library, and will be a place where all of our beloved books are stored. Maybe some brand new textbooks and novels too?

And so, this concludes my “inside scoop” tour of NT’s new eco-building: a perfection of a school that many others will envy. On behalf of CS&P architects, Paul Cravit says, “We have incorporated abundant lighting to fill the school with its colours and spirit, and we are proud of our integration of the old establishment into the new.” As loud as we are NT, embrace this last year in this memorabilia with as much spirit and laughter as possible, and be sure to continue them through our new walls.